Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599-3 September 1658) was Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth from 16 December 1653 to 3 September 1658, preceding Richard Cromwell. He rose to fame as a commander of the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War and the father of the New Model Army, and he ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland as a military dictator for five years before dying in office.

Biography
Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England on 25 April 1599, a descendant of King Henry VIII's courtier Thomas Cromwell; his family derived its wealth from the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He was an active member of Parliament during the buildup to the English Civil War, serving from 1628 to 1629 and from 1640 to 1642. Totally without miliary experience, when the war began he raised a troop of horse. He proved so effective as a leader of cavalry that, by January 1644, he was a lieutenant-general in the Eastern Association army. The discipline of Cromwell's troopers, nicknamed the Ironsides, was decisive in the Parliamentarian victories at Marston Moor in July 1644 and at Naseby the following June. By 1648, when he defeated a Scottish army at Preston, Cromwell was recognized as England's foremost general. Cromwell took an army to Ireland in 1649, where massacres at Drogheda and Wexford made him much hated. In 1650, he took over supreme command of the New Model Army. The subsequent Scottish campaign culminated in his most brilliant victory, achieved at Dunbar when he was cornered and outnumbered. Cromwell was never slow to engage in politics, quelling Leveller mutinies but supporting the execution of King Charles I of England. In 1653, he lost patience with Parliament and led an army against it, emerging as Lord Protector. He ruled England until his death in 1658.